Cliff Corcoran takes over the interview to interrogate Steve on BASEBALL’S BRIEF LIVES: PLAYER STORIES INSPIRED BY THE INFINITE INNING. Plus tales: Teams that played .700 ball and then faltered (that is, just the 2022 Yankees) and false hope from a prospect, starring Dodgers phenom-for-a-moment Cal Abrams—a tale that twisted in the telling as questions of performance were tangled with accusations of Antisemitism. TABLE OF CONTENTSThe Yankees Defenestrate*The Slow Rise and Quick Fall of Cal Abrams, Dodgers Phenom*Cliff Corcoran: Success Has Many Fathers*Dead Player Origins*In Baseball There’s a Story Everywhere You Look for It*The Rumors of Obi-Wan’s Death*The Bill James Influence*Gil McDougald and Horace Clarke*Tell McGraw—What?*Statcast and Derek Jeter’s Private Anatomy*Infallible*Empathy for Those Without Plaque*The Rick Ferrell Comment*Posthumous Recognition*Reconciling Pre-Integration Baseball*Goodbyes.Glass breaking effect by Inspector J of Freesound.The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?